Dynamics and stiffness analysis of a homopolar magnetic bearing

Decreasing eddy current is very important for the realization of stability control of HoMB system. In order to improve the dynamic performance precision of HoMB in the design stage, the dynamics and stiffness analysis of a homopolar magnetic bearing (HoMB) has been studied in this paper. Because the polarities of the magnetic poles were not changed during the rotation of rotor, the effect of eddy-currents was often ignored in the previous researches. However, when the frequencies of vibration caused by external disturbance and control currents are very high, eddy-current effects have significant influence on the performance of HoMB. In order to predict the HoMB performance, guide the HoMB design and control of the HoMB system in high frequency, a dynamics model was built on the equivalent circuit method. Parameters of dynamic Modeling are frequency-dependent. The effect of eddy-currents on the current stiffness was studied. The analysis results show that the eddy current effect on HoMB can be reduced by increasing the air gap, decreasing the laminations thickness and decreasing the laminations conductivity.